Within Kairos

Small talk, I’ve never been good at it. I’ve never seen the point.

“Hi, how are you?”

“I’m fine, you?”

“Good.”

“Well, see you tomorrow same time, probably say the same thing, have a good day.”

It’s not that I don’t want them to have a good day, but it always seems so fake. Every day after work I say, “Have a good night” to my landlord, and he says it to me. Now I truly do wish him a good night, but after saying it for the past three months it seems to have lost it’s meaning to me.

I would be perfectly fine with a nod, or a smile. I would also be fine stopping for five minutes to actually find out how someone was doing and share with them. I would love to stop and talk with someone who is having a bad day, hopefully be able to cheer them up a little. I would love to stop and talk with someone who is having a great day and to share in their excitement. It’s the spectrum inbetween called small talk that makes me feel uncomfortable.

Small talk does fill the silence though, and I have been known to hate silence. In fact I have actually been told, “Chris, you don’t have to try and fill all of the silence by talking, sometimes it is ok to not talk.” Maybe I actually do small talk, but I am so bad at it that it always just degenerates into a mindless babbling.

Wait a minute, is that what I am doing right now? Am I babbling? If so, I don’t care, I love babbling. Speaking of babbling, I guess the term comes from the Tower of Babel, “Come on man! We were just about to reach heaven, stop babbling so we can finish this tower!”

Oh, I guess that’s why I shouldn’t try and fill all the silent times, I might say something like that…

I guess my point is really this… Don’t keep on passing people by, sticking to routine. Actually stop once in a while and truly ask how someone is doing, and listen to them, try and be more involved in their life.

The images in this post originally from the great comic strip xkcd by Randall Munroe.